AIDS memorial 'a go' for Town Hall site

A permanent memorial to honor Provincetown's AIDS victims and the town's response to the crisis will be placed on the Town Hall lawn, following a July 22 unanimous vote by the selectmen.

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By MARY ANN BRAGG

capecodtimes.com

By MARY ANN BRAGG

Posted Jul. 29, 2013 at 2:00 AM

By MARY ANN BRAGG
Posted Jul. 29, 2013 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

PROVINCETOWN — A permanent memorial to honor the town's AIDS victims and the town's response to the crisis will be placed on the Town Hall lawn, following a July 22 unanimous vote by the selectmen. The town's Cultural Council has worked for 10 years to obtain funding and town permission to build a memorial, with the biggest struggle being over where it should be placed. The memorial has yet to be designed.

Sites considered in the last two years have included Town Hall lawn, the public library and a small public park in the East End known as Suzanne's Garden, based in part on suggestions made at a public hearing in 2012.

"I think it's a go," Selectman Elaine Anderson, board vice chairman, said Thursday. "It will be nice to get moving after 10 years. It's getting a little silly."

In Massachusetts, deaths of people reported with AIDS peaked in 1994 at 1,156, according to the latest state records. A steady decline over time has led to a low in 2010 of 232 deaths in Massachusetts. In Provincetown, at least 204 people reported with HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, or AIDS had died as of Dec. 31, 2011, according to state records.

The AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod, headquartered in Provincetown, was founded in 1983 in response to the toll AIDS was taking on the lives of gay men.

The memorial will be placed on the east side of Town Hall, next to Ryder Street, based on the selectmen's vote. The dimensions are still being determined, but the Cultural Council wants a 15-by-15-foot space.

A request for proposals for the memorial design will need to be developed and then selectmen, the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod, the town arts commission and others will be consulted, Cultural Council Chairman Tina Trudel said.

The Cultural Council will need at least $50,000 for the memorial and has already raised close to $20,000, Trudel said.